so a few weeks ago i attended a Motorcycle Safety Foundation course to begin my training on operating a motor vehicle that is missing a couple of wheels. i successfully completed the course (more on that later) and was issues a license to operate a motorcycle a week ago monday. every day since, i have had or made a reason to ride putting on over 200 miles in less than 2 weeks.
in order to ride, one must have one. in my case this is a buell blast, a bike manufactured by Harley-Davidson and the bike used in their Rider's Edge motorcycle instruction program. The Blast is not a fast motorcycle. It is a 500cc single cylinder "thumper" that has an aftermarket "exhaust" which sounds like little more than a can on the end of a straight pipe. i wear ear plugs when i ride.
today i dropped the bike performing a quick stop in a parking lot. my fault, i had not completed rechecking oncoming traffic before starting my turn. i should have had the bike straight before i got on the brakes and as a result the bike went down. even at ~330 pounds, it still was surprisingly hard to get back upright, but i managed, and only a couple of cosmetic scratches on some of the plastic parts that i was planning on painting over the next couple of weeks anyway.
i was happy to have dropped the bike. it happens to everyone. i learned what i did wrong. it was a good experience. no real damage done, lessons learned all around. as most people who i have talked to (or read online) say, "it is not a matter of if you will drop your bike, it is a matter of when." today was my when.
so the MSF class is 6 hours of classroom and 10 hours on bike instruction. the course material is interesting, the instructors were great. it is not enough instruction for new riders. i had read before going into the class that there were some concerns over the last couple of years that the quality of the instruction has become tailored to the lowest common denominator. i am inclined to agree. i needed more time on a bike in an instructional setting. instead i am having to learn more in parking lots and on surface streets. i am careful, but today's experience might have been avoided with a little more instruction.
by the way, i love it.